Attitudes towards natural/herbal medicine

[Eeks]

Found this article about a study they did on echinacea and cold virus. The doctor interviewed sounds almost proud or smug as he touts the results that "echinacea doesn't work."

http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/News/ContentPosting.aspx?contentid=9a4e9518dd0842fd8aa8a8f726a40563&show=True&number=5&showbyline=False&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc

OK so fine, maybe it doesn't work like people think it does. That's not my problem. My problem is with the attitude displayed here.

"It puts the cart ahead of the horse to do large clinical trials to disprove efficacy," he said. "What's happened in the past 30 years is that advocates of alternative medicine successfully turned things around to put the burden of proof on the scientific community and the taxpayers."

Uhh, how much tax do you think you are paying to support every phase of the conventional drug R&D and marketing process?

When it comes to herbal remedies, the bottom line is "that they are drugs and toxins and most plant species out there have a more likely chance of harming one than helping one," said Sampson.

I don't even know what to say about that other than this guy is a moron. His statements are logically flawed and he has no proof for them, but many people are going to believe him simply because he is a DOCTOR.

First, if plants are harmful because they are drugs and toxins, then conventional drugs that are or are not toxins could be harmful on that basis too.

Second, saying that most plant species are likelier to hurt than help is a very broad claim, that he has no proof for. You see how well that works?? "Scientific proof" is only an essential component of their argument when they WANT it to be.....in other words, they say that natural medicine does not work because it's not proven, but then they make broad claims about its lack of efficacy and risk of harm without any proof of those claims at all.

So do you want to take an herbal product that might harm you, or do you want to take a drug that has been scientifically proven to harm you??

There's a place for both types of medicine for sure....I am just tired of the hypocrisy.....